Six years later, Irvine teen wins patent

Allison Plette, a senior at Woodbridge High School, won an Astounding Inventions contest when she was in fifth grade. Her invention, the Safe Filter for pools, was just granted a patent.SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

IRVINE – Allison Plette was looking for a way to stick it to her big sister.

Her family had heard a news account about a child drowning because of hair caught in a swimming pool filter and Ashton, Allison's sister, used that information to scare Allison as much as possible.

Ashton would dive into the backyard pool, go to the bottom and act as if her hair was stuck in the filter, kicking her legs and holding her hands against the pool bottom.

When Ashton would resurface, Allison – then in fifth grade – would be bawling.

"That was my worst fear," Allison says.

Out of this bit of sisterly torment an invention was born.

•••

In 2005, as a fourth grader at Oak Creek Elementary in Irvine, Allison entered the Astounding Inventions competition. Like so many kids who were also dog owners, she'd come up with a variation on a pooper scooper.

Allison's scooper included a brush handle, similar to what you use on a barbecue grill, and a promise to be eco friendly. She took second place in the competition, which is held annually at Irvine Valley College.

But the next year – fifth grade for Allison – Oak Creek wasn't participating in Astounding Inventions. Allison, however, still wanted to give it a try.

She came up with a product that would end her sister's torment – the Safe Filter, a blade under the pool filter that would free hair or swimsuit strands that might get sucked in.

She cobbled together a prototype using part of a spare pool filter, plus a blade from a portable heater and a few items found in the family garage.

She learned that a common pool filter suctions at 2 horsepower – enough to do real damage if a kid somehow got caught up in the filter.

Allison posited that suction alone could make the blade spin. She figured if she used the right kind of plate above the blade – and if the blade would cut off any hair or bathing suit material that it might encounter – then the filter would be kid safe.

Her Safe Filter was one of several inventions to take a first-place ribbon at the city level round of Astounding Inventions, though it would not go on to win anything at the county level.

Still, Allison's entry set off a chain of events that would change her life six years later.

•••

As a winner at the Irvine level of the invention competition, Allison and her mother caught the eye of Orange County Register photographer Mindy Schauer, who snapped a picture of Allison that wound up in The Irvine World News.

In turn, the picture of teary-eyed mom, Nina, hugging her daughter clutching the blue ribbon grabbed the attention of Jeffrey Joy, who works at the law firm Greenberg Traurig.

Allison Plette, a senior at Woodbridge High School, won an Astounding Inventions contest when she was in fifth grade. Her invention, the Safe Filter for pools, was just granted a patent. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Safe Filter uses the suction from a pool pump to spin a sharp blade under the cover in order to cut anything trapped in the filter, like a bathing suit string or hair, so the person trapped can be freed. Allison Plette, a senior at Woodbridge High School, won an Astounding Inventions contest when she was in fifth grade. Her invention, the Safe Filter, was just granted a patent. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Safe Filter replaces a standard pool filter intake grate and sits on the bottom of the pool. It uses the suction created by the pool filter system, about 2 horsepower, to spin a sharp blade that cuts anything sucked into it. Allison Plette, a senior at Woodbridge High School, invented the Safe Filter when she was in the fifth grade. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Allison Plette, a senior at Woodbridge High School, won an Astounding Inventions contest when she was in fifth grade. Her invention, the Safe Filter for pools, was granted a patent. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Allison Plette, 10, gets a hug and kiss in 2005 from her teary-eyed mom, Nina Plette after Allison took first place in the Astounding Inventions competition at Irvine Valley College. She invented the Safe Filter, a device that shuts down the filter in a pool when hair gets caught in in thus preventing injury or death, explains Allison. MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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